Dear Rita,

I’m going to ‘s-Hertogenbosch at the end of the month to watch the World Cup Finals. The IDRC is meeting again at the show, the FEI is holding a forum for all dressage stakeholders, and the competition itself promises to be incredibly well fought this year. I’m excited to see it!!

The World Cup tour in Western Europe is my favourite tour. Some of the best horse shows on the continent are part of our World Cup season, and even though it is a real challenge to keep the horses on the fighting edge for the whole winter, the gruelling schedule is a trade-off against beautiful venues, perfect footing, good dining, fascinating cities and edge-of-your-seat competition.

I have competed at every stop on the tour over the past several years, and it is really difficult for me to pick a favourite show, although Las Vegas is definitely near the top of my list. Maximus and I were seventh in the Final at Las Vegas in 2007.  I gave it my best shot in 2009 to get another start in that rockin’ arena, but alas, the FEI decided to give the U.S. wild cards to other riders.

This year I will be a spectator for the Final again, but I was actually a bit relieved to give my best horse some time off from competitions this winter after deciding not to pursue a start in ‘s-Hertogenbosch. World Cup is an individual sport. The World Equestrian Games are team sport.

I intend to fly to the States in mid-summer and try out for the Team for the Kentucky WEG.

I’ve been tuning up my freestyle with Cadillac anyway. The music, from Celine Dion, is beautiful and very uplifting. One of my riders, Natalie Ciappara, produced it for me. She did a fabulous job!

I used to work with another very talented freestyle designer—Jürgen Niemeyer—before Natalie moved into my stable and asked for a chance to show me her fresh, young talent. Jürgen was the genius (and unsung hero) behind “The Gladiator Freestyle” that I performed with Maximus in Las Vegas in 2007. Between the two of us, we spent more than 160 hours working on that freestyle.

Jürgen extracted music from both the Gladiator score and some extra pieces written for the movie that were never actually used in the film. I told him that I wanted the choreography to tell a story, and that I wanted the music to capture the drama of the film. He made sure it did just that.

There are many videos on youtube of Maximus performing this freestyle. But none of them really give the viewer a chance to hear the nuances of the music that Jürgen compiled. I’ve added the original audio track to a Maximus slideshow. If you are interested, listen to what this man created—it is fantastic.

I’m Catherine Haddad, and I’m sayin it like it is from Vechta, Germany.

Training Tip of the Day: On difficulty in achieving symmetrical flexion and bend—do your horse’s problems disappear when you ride on the circle with the reins in one hand?

http://internationaldressage.com/